His comments follow a clamour from some Irish politicians and economists who believe the letters sent to Mr Lenihan contained threats that somehow forced him into a bailout. They now want the letters published.

Weekend media reports also suggested the letters contained threats but did not provide any quotations or evidence to back-up the assertions.

Without seeing the letters, it is impossible to know whether the ECB was simply expressing concern about the safety of the tens of billions of euro the bank pumped into the Irish economy or something more sinister. No media outlet, government minister or ECB president has ever published the letters and the Department of Finance and ECB’s freedom of information units have declined to release the letters.